[NoThru22]

Flash Gordon starts in two days (and then two days later on Universal HD!) and there aren't any reviews yet? This is troubling.

 

[whitson77]

I've been looking too. That doesn't seem like a good sign.

 

[FilmCritic3000]

I'm looking forward to the series. These are the only reviews that I've found so far.

Here's the review of Flash Gordon in Variety...

Flash Gordon
(Series -- Sci Fi Channel; Fri. Aug. 10, 9 p.m.)
By BRIAN LOWRY

'Flash Gordon'
Eric Johnson essays the role of Flash Gordon in the latest incarnation of the comicstrip premiering on Sci Fi Channel on Friday.
Filmed in Vancouver by Reunion Pictures and distributed by RHI Entertainment. Executive producers, Matthew O'Connor, Tom Rowe, Robert Halmi Sr., Robert Halmi Jr., Peter Hume; co-executive producer, James Thorpe; producer, Pascal Verchooris; director, Rick Rosenthal; writer, Hume.

Flash Gordon - Eric Johnson
Dale Harden - Gina Holden
Baylin - Karen Cliche
Hans Zarkov - Jody Racicot
Ming - John Ralston
Aura - Anna Van Hooft

Comicbooks and -strips have survived their share of camp treatment over the years, though producers' willingness to take such material seriously has improved markedly since Dino De Laurentiis' misguided whack at "Flash Gordon" in 1980, which remains most memorable for its Queen theme. Yet Sci Fi Channel's contemporized series mostly ignores the intervening quarter century, serving up a 90-minute premiere replete with playful if dimwitted banter, dimension-breaching nonsense, and a cast seemingly plucked from Revlon commercials. Nostalgia might win out, but barring a last-minute rescue, this bit of fluff will be forgotten in a you-know-what.

Nicknamed Flash for his fleet-footed ways, Steve Gordon (Eric Johnson, perhaps best known for a supporting gig on "Smallville") is living at home with his widowed mom when college girlfriend Dale Harden (Gina Holden) -- now a TV reporter -- pops back into his life, albeit wearing an engagement ring.

Some strange doings involving what cynical Dale presumes to be "faliens" (as in "fake aliens") quickly ensue, and Flash soon meets the nerdy Dr. Hans Zarkov (Jody Racicot), a former assistant to Flash's father, who disappeared through a space portal thingamajig years ago and, it turns out, might not really be dead.

Around the halfway point, Flash and Dale penetrate said vortex, encountering the planet Mongo, which looks a helluva lot like Vancouver with a little CGI thrown in. (To be fair, f/x on the screener provided were incomplete, but much of the action takes place outside amid inexpensive Canadian greenery.)

Flash begins to intuit that Mongo and its leader Ming (John Ralston, stripping the character of his customary Fu Manchu resemblance) might not be benevolent, leading to the inevitable torture, escape and stilted intergalactic dialogue. In fact, Peter Hume's adaptation beams into the realm of Sillyville around the time Mongo comes into the picture, and can't seem to find its way out.

The chemistry between Flash and Dale seems marginal at best, and aside from looking the part physically, Johnson doesn't convey much sense of heroic potential, even if seeing this ordinary Steve fumble his way into and out of danger is ostensibly part of the fun.

The second and third episodes, meanwhile, suggest a sort-of "X-Files" structure, with Flash, Dale and Zarkov policing threats-of-the-week from Mongo, while one escapee to Earth provides comic relief by trying to adjust to our strange ways.

Fortunately for Sci Fi, beyond a core of loyalists, the target younger demos should have relatively little investment in this 70-year-old property, theoretically banishing any comparisons to Buster Crabbe and allowing the series to stand or fall on its own.

So far, however, even in this sporty new vehicle the old codger looks a little unsteady on his pins -- lacking the requisite wit, excitement or sense of adventure to survive for long in this dimension, much less the next.

Camera, David Pelletier; editors, Rick Benwick, Gary Smith; music, Michael Picton; production designer, Clyde Klotz; casting, Stuart Aikins, Sean Cossey. 90 MIN.

Here's a review in The Boston Herald...

Super zero: ‘Flash Gordon’ likely to pass quicker than speed of light
By Mark A. Perigard
Boston Herald TV Critic
Thursday, August 9, 2007

When the Sci Fi Channel decided to update the ’70s schlock fest “Battlestar Galactica,” the network spun the premise on its head and found a riveting allegory for our war-torn times.
For its remake of “Flash Gordon,” Sci Fi is stuck in a time warp, awash in the camp of the 1980 box-office bomb.
For starters, our hero lives at home with his mother.
In the 90-minute pilot (tomorrow at 9 p.m.), Flash (Eric Johnson, “Smallville”) investigates a mystery involving his late physicist father, who may not be as late as believed, rifts in space that lead to another dimension and a mysterious device known as the Imex.

Shortly after winning a marathon, Flash realizes he is being followed by a mysterious guy - in an RV. That’s stealthy.
Meanwhile, aliens are popping up in the town’s bowling alley and the minimart, prompting reporter Dale Arden (Gina Holden) to rant, “What is this, alien homecoming week?”
Dale and Flash have a Ross and Rachel kind of relationship. They even argue about who broke up with whom.
Johnson is wooden as Flash, and he and Dale have zero chemistry. Not so for Karen Cliche, best known from the last season of “Mutant X.” As alien bounty hunter Baylin, she radiates chemistry with even the props.
As Ming the Merciless, Flash’s eternal nemesis, John Ralston is as terrifying as a granola bar. Sci Fi needed an actor who could project even camp menace. This guy looks as if he got lost on the way to Dunkin’ Donuts.
Most of the special effects were not finished in the review copy, so it’s impossible to gauge whether they’ll be an improvement over Sci Fi’s typical strobe-light show.
By the look of Flash’s wardrobe, however, the series is sparing every expense. Flash wears what looks like a cross between a track outfit and a Member’s Only jacket.
The dialogue aims for cuteness and gets stuck in silly. In a seeming life-and-death struggle with an alien in his kitchen, Flash battles with a frying pan. Dale searches for a weapon.
“Not the blender - my mom will kill me,” Flash says.
Later, when they bring back a sexy alien to Earth, Dale doubts the woman’s calling.
“If she’s an abbot, I’m Costello,” she says.
Ba dum bum.
Thank you, Sci Fi will be airing this program for 11 weeks.
“FLASH GORDON”
Series premiere tomorrow at 9 p.m. on Sci Fi Channel.
Grade: C+

Here's a review at newsday.com...

Flash Gordon' not out of this world

BY DIANE WERTS | [email protected]
August 9, 2007

And here's another reason we love DVD. The 1980 "Flash Gordon" feature film just came out on disc this week, all its campy comedy, glitzy adventure, disco-era sauciness and Queen music as frisky-fun as ever. (Our space-marooned title hero is otherwise the quarterback for the New York Jets!) The nostalgic 1930s Buster Crabbe movie serials that started it all can be found on DVD, too, taking themselves oh-so-seriously with their clockwork cliffhangers and bargain-basement special effects.

So, get one or both of those, and enjoy yourself immensely. Or watch Sci Fi's new "Flash Gordon" series and wonder where the magic went.

It's hard to see how a show could take such a perennial fave and go this completely wrong. Unless you factor in Canada. Sorry to say, our neighbors to the north specialize in providing American television with inexpensive production, gray weather and bland acting. Yes, there's the occasional exception ("Battlestar Galactica," we love you), but more often, Canadian imports have all the sharp edges, sharp wit and sharp performances rounded off 'til they're soulless.

Related Links

* Flash Gordon Photo

In this particular instance, not one of the model-pretty cast makes any impression whatsoever, not Eric Johnson as our slacker hero "dude" (even when he's shirtless), and not Gina Holden as his Dale Arden, a former youthful fling who's now a TV reporter with a police detective fiance.

The evil Ming, emperor of the planet Mongo that's visited by Flash, is no longer a vaguely Asian fiend but instead a more politically correct and purportedly charming younger man (John Ralston), though he still has an adult daughter with the hots for Flash. A younger, geekier Dr. Zarkov (Jody Racicot) comes the closest to displaying some semblance of personality as Flash's smarter sidekick, but even he is defeated by a series tone too dumb for adults yet too talky-dull for kids.

The story goes that aliens have landed in Flash's Maryland hometown, seeking something once invented by his dead (or is he?) scientist father. After rampaging through the local bowling alley (not as much fun as it sounds), they open a rift through which Flash and Dale zap to Mongo in search of Daddy. They cute-bicker. Dale proves herself resourceful (those modern women!). The captured Flash is tortured (the shirtless part). And Ming gets to (blandly) threaten Dale with the supposedly sexually charged command "Have her cleaned and sent to my chamber."

Attempts are made to set up environmental and class exploitation themes on Mongo, none of which matters because they're so boringly presented. Nobody seems to be having any fun here, not even lording-it-over-everybody Ming.

You'd think next week's second episode might be better, once all that exposition is out of the way, but you'd be wrong. It's even more lifeless, unless you count a newly landed alien who laughingly resembles someone from those Geico caveman commercials, or maybe the classic moment when Flash tells a female alien bounty hunter who's crashed his house, "You can only stay here until my mom gets back."

FLASH GORDON. Hardly the savior of the universe. Neither this contemporary telling nor its hero can decide whether to be a cartoon or serious sci-fi. So they're nothing. Series premieres Friday at 9 p.m. on SCI FI.

Here's a review from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...

TV Review: Poor writing leaves 'Flash Gordon' grounded

Thursday, August 09, 2007
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jeff Weddell, Sci Fi Channel
Gina Holden, left, is Dale Arden and Eric Johnson is Flash Gordon in Sci Fi Channel's "Flash Gordon."
Click photo for larger version

'Flash Gordon'
When: 9 p.m. Friday, Sci Fi Channel.
Starring: Eric Johnson.

Ever since Sci Fi Channel announced in January it would air an update of "Flash Gordon" (9 p.m. Friday), I've been both excited by the prospect and full of dread. Excited because it would be fun to see a new take on the classic sci-fi tale; full of dread because the new "Flash" is executive produced by Robert Halmi Sr., whose productions are not noted for the high caliber of their scripts.

After watching Friday's 90-minute premiere, this "Flash" dashed my hopes, as feared.

It has a likable lead in actor Eric Johnson (Whitney, Clark's jock nemesis, on the first season of "Smallville"), who stars as marathon runner Steve "Flash" Gordon. His age is never stated explicitly, but he and ex-girlfriend TV news reporter Dale Arden (Gina Holden) have a history, so he's post-college for sure. But, oddly, in some close-ups, he appears to be too close in age to the actress who plays his mom.

Although the lack of spaceships is an initial disappointment -- Flash and Dale travel to Mongo, ruled by the evil Ming (John Ralston), by tripping through a space-time rift -- I got used to the new device quickly. The show's biggest drawback is the same problem faced by just about every other Sci Fi Channel series introduced in the past year: lackluster writing.

Like "Dresden Files" and "Painkiller Jane" before it, "Flash Gordon" is a victim of pedestrian scripting. Worse yet, the characters are forced to spout too much exposition that betrays what should be the characters' natural reactions (rather than being amazed by the jump to Mongo, moments after arriving Dale announces they're "captives on an alien planet"). There's also a fair bit of technobabble and an alien culture that's confusing in the first episode.

One of two future episodes sent for review shows more evidence of a sense of humor -- particularly when a jungle girl from Mongo takes up residence in Flash's house -- but everything else about this "Flash Gordon" remains dreadful, particularly the scenery-chewing villains. On Mongo there's a guy who floats instead of walking, and who suffers the double indignity of terrible dialogue and a scenery-chewing performance.

Fans of the camptastic 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie shouldn't get too excited by hearing the Queen theme song in ads for the new TV series. Executive producer Peter Hume said it won't be used in the show, "except maybe as a ring tone or something," although the movie's Flash, actor Sam J. Jones, has been tapped to guest star in an upcoming episode to air in October.

 

[FilmCritic3000]

Here's the 45 minute Flash Gordon panel from Comic Con.

http://video.scifi.com/player/?id=140017

 

[FilmCritic3000]

The pilot episode of Flash Gordon will be released on DVD, for a limited time, on August 14th.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6178

 

[MickeS]

Even the promos for this show make it look like crap. I set the season pass already though.

 

[FilmCritic3000]

Even the promos for this show make it look like crap. I set the season pass already though.

Yeah, I'm not expecting much. I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.

 

[atrac]

So basically, we should "blame Canada."

 

[FilmCritic3000]

The funniest part of the Comic Con panel was when an audience member asked, in total seriousness, if The Flash would still be running fast and if the series will maintain the integrity of the comic book. The executive producer/head writer/showrunner Peter Hume, the panel, and the audience had a big laugh at that, and Peter had to explain to this person that this character is Flash Gordon, not The Flash.

 

[whitson77]

The funniest part of the Comic Con panel was when an audience member asked, in total seriousness, if The Flash would still be running fast and if the series will maintain the integrity of the comic book. The executive producer/head writer/showrunner Peter Hume, the panel, and the audience had a big laugh at that, and Peter had to explain to this person that this character is Flash Gordon, not The Flash.

Haha...Is Dale a hottie?

Web Sense blocks me from searching.

 

[7thton]

Entertainment Weekly gave it a C+

 

[Fl_Gulfer]

They have the balls to cancel The Dresden Files and put this junk on. I just don't understand they way they think, The wife and I loved TDF.

 

[TokyoShoe]

Flash Gordon starts in two days (and then two days later on Universal HD!) and there aren't any reviews yet? This is troubling.

Woah woah woah.. the new Flash Gordon is showing on Universal HD, and with only a TWO DAY DELAY?! Holy Guacamoley, I need to reset my season pass. Screw Sci-Fi , I want it in HIDEF!

 

[whitson77]

They have the balls to cancel The Dresden Files and put this junk on. I just don't understand they way they think, The wife and I loved TDF.

Dresden is cancelled for sure? That sucks. I much rather would have kept that and not had Flash. I really liked the Dresden Files.

Edited to add: I just found links everywhere.

 

[NoThru22]

Thanks for posting the reviews, FilmCritic. I guess when I say "no reviews?" I mean no reviews on AICN. They are disappointing, but I will give the show a shot. It's doing one thing right over BSG with it's near simulcast in HD.

 

[Langree]

Woah woah woah.. the new Flash Gordon is showing on Universal HD, and with only a TWO DAY DELAY?! Holy Guacamoley, I need to reset my season pass. Screw Sci-Fi , I want it in HIDEF!

I did the same.

 

[whitson77]

I did the same.

As did I

 

[FilmCritic3000]

Haha...Is Dale a hottie?

That would be a yes.

 

[FilmCritic3000]

Thanks for posting the reviews, FilmCritic. I guess when I say "no reviews?" I mean no reviews on AICN. They are disappointing, but I will give the show a shot. It's doing one thing right over BSG with it's near simulcast in HD.

You're very welcome!

Yeah, I too wondered why AICN wasn't running reviews, as they usually do for new TV series when they debut but then I remembered that their TV guru, Hercules, doesn't usually post an article for a series until late the day before or early the day of its premiere airing.

 

[cheesesteak]

The Dresden Files was cancelled????????????????